Rexgenero, a regenerative medicine company developing advanced cell therapies to treat chronic limb-threatening ischaemia (CLTI), has announced the acquisition of all the key assets of aratinga.bio SAS Group, a preclinical-stage immunotherapy biotechnology company based in Paris, France.
The acquisition, which follows the recent approval by the French Commercial Court, includes all patent applications and related intellectual property, the exclusive license agreement for polymeric nanoparticle technology and the bioproduction facilities of aratinga.bio SAS Group, as well as the entire aratinga.bio team.
All assets of aratinga.bio SAS Group will be transferred to a newly created French subsidiary of Rexgenero.
David Horn Solomon, chair of Rexgenero, comments: “The acquisition of the aratinga.bio SAS Group’s assets and intellectual property will enable the creation of an integrated cell and gene therapy platform that combines our innovative late-stage Phase III REX-001 programme for chronic limb-threatening ischaemia with aratinga.bio SAS Group’s potentially transformative in vivo CAR-T platform. In addition, the operating synergies between the two businesses are considerable.”
Renaud Vaillant, chief executive officer of aratinga.bio SAS Group, says: “This unique combination provides the solution we have been looking for, enabling us to continue the development of our breakthrough CAR-T technology to proof of concept in 2020 in preparation for a Phase I/II clinical trial.”
Cécile Bauche, chief scientific officer of aratinga.bio SAS Group, adds: “This acquisition will provide funding for experiments needed to demonstrate proof of concept of our CAR-T therapeutics in vivo.”
The transaction enables aratinga.bio SAS Group to continue the development of its technology, and for the Paris-based team (15 people in Villejuif, close to the Institut Gustave Roussy) to pursue this programme.